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First look at PineTime's InfiniTime 1.0 Release Candidate 1

April 18, 2021 — Nico Cartron

We're getting super close to a 1.0 release of InfiniTime, PineTime's firmware by JF!
Keep reading to see all the new exciting features embedded in that version!


Release Candidate?

First, a disclaimer: this version is still a Release Candidate, meaning it's meant for final testing and squashing any remaining bug - so use it accordingly!

As you may have guessed, the fact that this version is named "1.0" means a lot, when compared with previous numbering (0.7.1 for the version shipped with the watch, up to 0.15.0 for the last version).

So in this article, I want to quickly show you what's new, comparing it with older fimwares.

Old firmware

Below are some screenshots from InfiniTime 0.15.0, just to put things into perspective:

New firmare

And the same screens on InfiniTime 1.0-RC:

What's new?

The Release page on GitHub lists the below new features:

  • Step counter
  • Wake on wrist rotation
  • 12/24h display
  • Vibration enable/disable
  • Big UI rework by Joaquimorg
  • User settings saved in flash memory
  • Improve TWI driver that should not freeze anymore in games

Wow, that's something! Let's go under the hood now!

UI rework by Joaquimorg

Probably the feature you'll notice right away when using InfiniTime 1.0-RC1 for the first time!
Not on the watchface, but when using the watch, see by yourself:

  • all the icons have been remade and look much better (see screenshots above)
  • the "app drawers" (still accessible by swiping up) has been redesigned and now only shows applications, since settings and other features have been moved to a dedicated location
  • notifications can be displayed by swiping down from the watchface (which I find much more convenient, compared with before when you had to swipe up twice and locate the "i" icon)
  • and finally swipping to the right shows quick settings:
    • brightness (low/medium/high)
    • torch
    • enable/disable vibration (quite handy / similar to "Do Not Disturb" mode)
    • settings (see below)

Additional Settings:

  • Display timeout is now configurable (5, 15, 20, 30 seconds):
  • Time format can be switched between 12h and 24h
  • Swapping between Digital and Analog watchface is also done from here (previously you had to long press on the watchface)

Wake up watch

The only option so far to wake up the watch was to press the left button, which was not super convenient.

This version introduces a lot more options:

  • Single tap on the screen
  • Double tap on the screen
  • Raise wrist
  • and "None" (so same behaviour as before)

I am using the "Single tap" option, but have tested extensively the "Raise wrist" one, and it's working really well - of course it's not perfect as it wakes up at times where you don't necessarily need it, but that's true from all the smartwatches I've tested, so I'm fine with it.

Step counter

Probably the one thing which was stopping me from wearing my PineTime every day! I like knowing how many steps I've walked/ran, and not having this information on my watch was a show stopper.

This version introduces a step counter, which is reset to 0 at midnight, so you can follow your goals :) (although there's not such notion as "goal" today, InfiniTime just displays the number of steps - yet another new nice feature to add in the future! ;)

Now you may wonder how accurate the steps counting is with the PineTime?
Well, turns out it's super accurate!

I have tested the PineTime alongside my Apple Watch, which I'm using for a few months now and therefore I know it's pretty accurate.

See below the steps counter after a 21 kms run I did, it's astonishingly accurate! (20.354 steps reported by the PineTime, vs. 20489 by the Apple Watch).

Here are some numbers for the past days (I'll be updating this in the coming days):

  • Day 1: PineTime 27336 / Apple Watch 26118
    • I did the long run (21k) above, along with normal activity
  • Day 2: PineTime 8138 / Apple Watch 6430
    • I did less "pure" activities but rather walked around in the house
  • Day 3: PineTime 16846 / Apple Watch 14163
    • I did a 11k run in the morning, and normal activity the rest of the day
  • Day 4: PineTime 16800 / Apple Watch 15338
    • that's with a 12k run and some activity the rest of the day
  • Day 5: PineTime 19156 / Apple Watch 17270
    • 13k run + some activity the rest of the day
  • Day 6: PineTime 5742 / Apple Watch 4858
    • Not much activity on that day ;)
  • Day 7: PineTime 23882 / Apple Watch 21525

The only "bad" thing at the moment is that steps counting is not saved when resetting the watch, so you'll lose the progress and will start from 0.

User settings saved in flash memory

Yet another useful change: in previous versions of InfiniTime, a reset of the watch (done by holding the button for ~8 seconds) would result in losing all the settings (e.g. level of brightness).
That's no longer the case with version 1.0: user settings are saved in the flash memory, and read when the watch is booting!

Improve TWI driver that should not freeze anymore in games

I have not experienced it myself (probably because I don't play much with my PineTime), but it has been reported that the games were freezing quite a lot.
This has been fixed now, so enjoy using those games! :)

Wrap Up

If you've been following my articles on InfiniTime and PineTime, you knew that this day would be coming, and we're just a few days away from having an "official" InfiniTime 1.0!

The tests I've done in the past 1 day 1/2 are extremely positive and I will now wear my PineTime daily, as I am not missing any feature!

Now is it perfect? Of course no, there are still things to improve and new features to add, and the issues page on InfiniTime's GitHub is growing.
But what is super nice is that the project has now a lot more contributors, adding features/code, testing - that's in line with the interview I recently did with JF and it's really heartening to see that!


Tags: PineTime


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